25 September 2010 Posts

Cartoon: too much truth here:

Speaking of Tea Party Loons:

(from here)

Banned books: I’ve read many of these (assigned by my school) and at least one of these as a kid.

What, Republicans Islamophobic? GOP candidate’s ad in North Carolina answers that question | Crooks and Liars

Remember how, during this long-running controversy over the so-called ‘Ground Zero mosque’ all the right-wing talking heads have insisted that heavens, no, they didn’t have anything against Muslims generally — and they certainly had no …

What, Republicans Islamophobic? GOP candidate’s…, posted with vodpod

24 September 2010 posts

Science
Yes, time dilation occurs in our own rooms…though the time differences are a tad small.

But you know, physics has conquered the classical problems; that is, those problems that you can see directly around you.

Biology and Evolution
Do you want to see how long ago our common ancestors diverged? Recursivity advertises our distance from the moose.

Animal Camouflage: well, this is really mimicry; here is an ADULT fly that looks like an ant larva. This example comes from Jerry Coyne’s blog.

Politics

Liberal bloggers to the White House: punching hippies won’t make “the base” more enthusiastic. What this means: when it comes time to make calls or to raise money, Democratic politicians love liberals. But on the campaign, they run AGAINST those liberals, and in policy, they ignore liberals and sometimes ridicule them in public. Well, the hippies are getting tired of getting punched.

Politics No, the GOP won’t meet their stated policy goals. But they might well stop any of our problems from being addressed. As Paul Krugman writes about the GOP’s new “pledge”:

The “pledge,” then, is nonsense. But isn’t that true of all political platforms? The answer is, not to anything like the same extent. Many independent analysts believe that the Obama administration’s long-run budget projections are somewhat too optimistic — but, if so, it’s a matter of technical details. Neither President Obama nor any other leading Democrat, as far as I can recall, has ever claimed that up is down, that you can sharply reduce revenue, protect all the programs voters like, and still balance the budget.

And the G.O.P. itself used to make more sense than it does now. Ronald Reagan’s claim that cutting taxes would actually increase revenue was wishful thinking, but at least he had some kind of theory behind his proposals. When former President George W. Bush campaigned for big tax cuts in 2000, he claimed that these cuts were affordable given (unrealistic) projections of future budget surpluses. Now, however, Republicans aren’t even pretending that their numbers add up.

So how did we get to the point where one of our two major political parties isn’t even trying to make sense?

The answer isn’t a secret. The late Irving Kristol, one of the intellectual godfathers of modern conservatism, once wrote frankly about why he threw his support behind tax cuts that would worsen the budget deficit: his task, as he saw it, was to create a Republican majority, “so political effectiveness was the priority, not the accounting deficiencies of government.” In short, say whatever it takes to gain power. That’s a philosophy that now, more than ever, holds sway in the movement Kristol helped shape.

And what happens once the movement achieves the power it seeks? The answer, presumably, is that it turns to its real, not-so-secret agenda, which mainly involves privatizing and dismantling Medicare and Social Security.

Realistically, though, Republicans aren’t going to have the power to enact their true agenda any time soon — if ever. Remember, the Bush administration’s attack on Social Security was a fiasco, despite its large majority in Congress — and it actually increased Medicare spending.

So the clear and present danger isn’t that the G.O.P. will be able to achieve its long-run goals. It is, rather, that Republicans will gain just enough power to make the country ungovernable, unable to address its fiscal problems or anything else in a serious way. As I said, banana republic, here we come.

The wealthy: Bill Maher speaks his mind:

New Rule: The next rich person who publicly complains about being vilified by the Obama administration must be publicly vilified by the Obama administration. It’s so hard for one person to tell another person what constitutes being “rich”, or what tax rate is “too much.” But I’ve done some math that indicates that, considering the hole this country is in, if you are earning more than a million dollars a year and are complaining about a 3.6% tax increase, then you are by definition a greedy asshole.

Surf to read more…it is worth it.

24 September 2010 Rehabilitation

Sleep: got it.
Shoulder: slightly sore in the evening; I worked it pretty hard though.
Knee: fine, it felt better during my treadmill run, BUT I wore “newer” shoes. Time to replace the old ones and bring another new pair into the mix.

Workout: abs/sit ups, arm bike (10 minutes), 30 leg presses to warm up (light weight).
Treadmill: run, started and increased speed every minute: 9:10 mile 1, 17:50 for 2 (8:40 second mile).
Then 1 mile AMT,
Then rotator cuff, light stretching. Note: in triangle, the right arm in the air felt as bit sore.

24 September 2010 (am)

(nah…not me )

Posts
Check out this cool space image:

Math education One of my friends sent this to me. Check out the headline:

Students Learn More from Video Game than Math Lessons

Whoa, dude, just, like, fire the math professors and replace them with, like, video games!

Oh wait, here is the text:

A video game has managed to trump traditional math lessons when teaching linear algebra to students. The remarkable results come from a controlled study held at an underachieving school district in the Southeast U.S.

Researchers did not say just how much better students performed. Yet Technology Review points out that this makes sense because of the statistical limits on the study, which involved just 200 kids.

Emphasis mine. What to take away:
1. Underachieving school district: so we are talking about grade school/high school.
2. LINEAR ALGEBRA? I don’t think so (linear algebra is usually taken by sophomore mathematics/physics/computer science majors in college). I doubt if they were talking about vector spaces or eigenvalues.
3. n = 200. Small study. I haven’t seen the p-value so I can’t comment. But were this p-value to be, say, .05 and this study carried out in 100 different places, you’d get, on the average, 5 different “the students did better” results and 95 “didn’t do better” results. Guess which ones would get in the news?

Again, I haven’t seen the p-values and I haven’t seen how many places where the study was done. I agree that, if this were the first time, it would deserve MORE study; there is some promise here. I am not taking issue with those who did the study; this IS the kind of study that should be done. Rather, I take issue with how the study gets reported by the media.

Science/Religion Via Why Evolution is True. Jerry Coyne seems disappointed that another atheist is attacking the “gnu” atheists (wordplay on “new” atheists)

In the end, even the most sophisticated theology comes down to word-parsing, adducing no convincing evidence for God. Nor do the sophisticated theologians explain how they know their interpretation is correct, while all the different and conflicting things said by other theologians, and those of other faiths, are wrong.

When judging theology, I adhere to Hitchens’s Dictum: “What can be asserted without proof can be dismissed without proof.” Without proof, we needn’t take it seriously. And besides, the Gnu Atheists have certainly not ignored theology. All of them—Hitchens, Harris, Dawkins, and even small fry like me—dismiss religious arguments after due consideration.

As for the rest of theology—whether Jebus turns into a cracker, whether Mary was transported bodily to heaven (and whether Mohamed got a ride up there on his horse)—well, what’s the point of discussing these if there’s no evidence for God in the first place? It’s like debating whether the Flying Spaghetti Monster is made of vermicelli, bucatini, or capellini.

Main points:
1. One need not study all of the nuances of a belief system to dismiss or reject it. After all, how many scientists take astrology seriously? One can even get a degree in astrology at some universities (not in the US). Basically, “sophisticated” theology is on a par with “sophisticated” astrology. There is as much evidence for each (e. g. none).

2. We are talking about religion here; most who follow the religion in the US believe in a deity that can affect events in this universe here and now. Hence it makes sense for a popular book to attack these claims, even if these aren’t what “sophisticated” philosophers and theologians hold.

3. The falsifiable claims of religion have been falsified. The track record is not very good; nothing warrants a deeper study.

Politics Krugman is right: Democrats are scared of their own shadow. I know, I know: part of it is that we have so many Democrats representing Republican districts (48).

23 September 2010 Rehabilitation

Sleep: ok; some slight uneasiness. No real pain.

Workout:
squats (2 legged, Smith) 10 x 135, 10 x 175 (first set went deeper)
one legged, Smith: 10 x 95
Leg press: 20 x 180, 20 x 270, 20 x 360

Note: some light joint pain on both knees; I’ll probably have to buy flat shoes to wear for these.

Abs: 100 reps (leg lifts, twist crunches, scissors, crunches, twist crunches)
3 circuits of: 10 extensions, 10 leg curls, 30 toe raises, 10 back extensions, 15-20 vertical crunches
Arm bike: 10 minutes
out door walk; about 3.5 miles in 45 minutes easy
light yoga, stretches, rotator cuff, ice.

Note: on “triangle pose”, my right shoulder hurts slightly on extending the arm upward. When that is pain free, I’ll be ready to swim.

Former Bush Adviser Hubbard Weighs in on Tax Cut Debate | PBS NewsHour | Sept. 22, 2010

In the first of several conversations on whether Bush-era should be extended, Gwen Ifill speaks with Columbia University’s business school Dean Glenn Hubbard, who helped craft the cuts when he served as an economic adviser to President George W. Bush.

Former Bush Adviser Hubbard Weighs in on Tax Cu…, posted with vodpod

Countdown: Countdown Special Report: Small in name only (and other topics)

Countdown: Countdown Special Report: Small in n…, posted with vodpod

Bottom line: “small business” does not always mean “small profit”; rather it is about the number of employees on the official payroll as measured in a specific way. The Republicans are using this “small business” canard as a way of fighting to keep tax returns for the wealthy.

Some conservatives are more honest:

Former Bush Adviser Hubbard Weighs in on Tax Cu…, posted with vodpod

The above is the type of thing I am ok with: here the policy goals are clearly stated and we can have debate.

Other topics
Health Care Reform:

The owner of this video is a right-winger but the important point is that HCR attacks this problem.

Snark:
Paul Krugman on the ongoing whines

I suppose this is what passes for noblesse oblige these days.

The House Race, 2010 (simplified)

Ok, as of 2008, the Democrats held 48 House seats in districts that Senator McCain won.

Blue States: 22
CT-3, CT-4, FL-2, FL-24, IN-8, IN-9, MD-1, MN-7, NC-7, NC-11, NM-2, NY-13, NY-29, OH-6, OH-16, OH-18,PA-3, PA-10, PA-12, PA-17, VA-5, VA-9 (12 in bold)

Red States: 26
AL-2, AL-5, AR-1, AR-2, AR-4, AZ-1, AZ-5, AZ-8, GA-8, ID-1, KY-6, LA-3, MO-4, MS-1, MS-4, ND, OK-2, SC-5, SD, TN-4, TN-6, TN-8, TX-17, UT-2, WV-1, WV-3 (19 in bold)

I went to Nate Silver’s blog to see which seats were most in peril:

Likely Takeover
98% TN-6 84% MD-1 97% NY-29 89% MI-1 83% IL-11 96% AR-2 86% VA-5 81% IN-8
92% KS-3 85% MS-1 81% PA-10 90% LA-3 84% ND-1 80% WI-7 (4)
Lean Takeover
Current party has between 60 and 80% chance of losing seat
80% OH-16 70% SD-1 64% WV-1 80% AR-1 70% OH-15 63% PA-11 79% TN-8 70% AL-2 63% IN-9 77% OH-1 68% MI-7 62% AZ-5 72% PA-7 67% NY-19 61% WA-3 72% CO-4 66% FL-24 61% NH-1 72% MI-9 64% NH-2 60% SC-5 72% NM-2 64% TX-17 60% PA-3 (12)

Even Chance of Takeover
Current party has between 40 and 60% chance of losing seat

59% AZ-1 55% IL-14 50% NY-24 57% , GA-8 50% NV-3
57% TN-4 47% LA-2 56% IA-3 54% FL-8 47% NC-8
56% CA-11 53% VA-2 45% TX-23 56% CO-3 53% PA-8 44% OH-18
56% PA-12 51% MO-4 43% AZ-8
56% KY-6 50% WI-8 43% OH-6

Now look at the list of Democratic seats in McCain districts: 31 of these are on the list of 60 “endangered” Democratic seats.
16 of the current “top two” categories of being endangered are in districts that Obama won.

So, basically, we probably shouldn’t have 31 of the seats that are endangered.

Isn’t this the truth?